Ala

Ala town is an ancient village of Roman origins

that, similarly to the other villages of the Vallagarina, was a place of transit of goods and of armies;

the village takes a structured form during the middle ages, with the building of a castle of which little remains to see, but it is from the XVI century that Ala sees a time of richness because of the silk, and therefore sees the building of new aristocratic palaces, the renovation and the embellishment of the existing ones that we can see nowadays: Palazzo de’ Pizzini, Palazzo Taddei, Palazzo De Gresti, Palazzo Malfatti. In memory of those flourishing times, each year in July the event “Ala città di velluto” (“Ala velvet town”) takes place, with the opening of courtyards to the public,   actors dressed in period costumes, gastronomic stalls.

ALA GEOGRAPHY

Province: Trento
Fractions: Chizzola, Marani, Pilcante, Sdruzzinà, Ronchi, Santa Margherita, Sega, Serravalle
Surrounding municipalities: Avio, Bosco Chiesanuova (VR), Brentwood, Crespadoro (VI), Erbezzo (Vr), Mori, Recoaro Terme (Vi), Rovereto, Sant’Anna d’Alfaedo (Vr), Selva di Progno (Vr), Vallarsa
Altitude: 180 m above sea level – Population: 8553 – Name of Inhabitants: alensiAla town is located in the territory of Trentino Vallagarina, at the foot of Mount Baldo, on the opposite side of the lake Garda and the intersection of Valbona and Val Ronchi, is crossed by a river from which the town takes its name. Lies along the Brenner motorway leading from Verona to Trento, Rovereto few kilometers before.

ALA HISTORY

Ala is a village of ancient origins, at the time of the Romans was already known as a center for exchange of goods and stop on the road that linked the Po Valley and the northern lands. Here there was a castle in the Middle Ages, was later destroyed at the hands of Castelbarco, and the village was divided into two zones, one near the castle and a downstream, after the destruction of the castle, the town was defended by placing the entrance doors to the main access roads and towers of wood. In the sixteenth century the town entered a period of considerable commercial development due to the breeding of silkworms, becoming a famous production center of silk and velvet later, hence the “Ala città di velluto” (Ala velvet town), it follows the construction of new quarters for processing and to accommodate more people come to work, various buildings for the production and processing of silk. The town suffer a decline of the industry in the nineteenth century, to a lesser extent offset by the construction of the Brenner railway.

TO VISIT IN ALA